“The award is a credit to St. Luke’s outstanding leadership, providers, nurses, hospital staff and volunteers who day in and day out maintain an unwavering focus on quality and patient satisfaction. I couldn’t be prouder to work with such wonderful caregivers,” Carol Kuplen, president, St. Luke’s University Hospital-Bethlehem, said in a statement.

Leapfrog awarded the 2018 Top Hospital awards to 118 hospitals in four categories: top children’s hospitals; top general hospitals; top teaching hospitals and top rural hospitals.

“It takes leadership, teamwork and absolute dedication to patients to achieve this award,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, said in a statement.

“We’re encouraged by the hard work of Top Hospitals, as well as all of the hospitals that compete for this award. Their transparency and determination delivers the best possible care in their communities,” Binder said.

Leapfrog’s analysis shows the top hospitals have better systems in place to prevent medication errors, higher quality on maternity care and lower infection rates, among other qualities.

Only hospitals that earned an A, the top grade, in the fall 2018 Leapfrog hospital safety grades were eligible for the Top Hospitals award.

Data used to identify hospitals are gathered and publicly reported through the Leapfrog hospital survey, which compares hospitals’ performance on national standards of patient safety, quality, efficiency and management structures that prevent errors, providing the most comprehensive picture of how patients fare at individual institutions.